Managing sequential ambidexterity in the electronics industry: roles of temporal switching capability and contingent factors

Researchers on organisational ambidexterity have proposed several solutions to address the potential conflicts between exploration activities and exploitation activities. Unlike simultaneous ambidexterity, sequential ambidexterity – defined as temporal switching between exploration and exploitation – has not been examined fully, and the conditions under which this temporal switching can be successful are unclear. This paper proposes the concept of temporal switching capability to better understand the process by which sequential ambidexterity is executed. In addition, we hypothesise that performance effects are contingent upon firm-specific factors: a firm’s business strategy and absorptive capacity. Utilising three sources of data – a secondary database, annual reports and a survey administered to 145 firms in the electronics industry with 10-year observations – we find support for our hypotheses. The results show that the temporal switching capability positively relates to new product performance and that business strategy type and absorptive capacity have moderating effects. The results are meaningful in both theory and practice.     

SOA adoption in business networks: do service-oriented architectures really advance inter-organizational integration?

The emergence of the Internet as a global communication infrastructure has dramatically reduced interaction costs within and across organizations, with significant impact on inter-organizational relationships, vertical industry structures, and markets. More recently, service-oriented architectures (SOA) and Web services have introduced the next paradigm shift and foster the idea of dynamic business networks with quick connect and disconnect relationships. However, little research has systematically analyzed how companies leverage SOA to improve their inter-organizational relationships and reshape their business networks. In addition, the mature research stream on inter-organizational information systems (IOS) has not yet sufficiently considered SOA. In order to close this gap, our research seeks to improve the fundamental understanding of how SOA is applied in business networks and how it differs from prior forms of IOS. Using an exploratory research approach, we investigate 33 SOA cases to identify focus areas and patterns of SOA adoption in business networks. Our case analysis builds on a multi-dimensional classification scheme which we derived from prior literature. While our empirical findings do not confirm all promising propositions related to SOA, they underline the specific contribution of SOA compared to prior forms of IOS. We conclude by suggesting five clusters of SOA adoption in the inter-organizational domain, each of those introducing new aspects in the coordination of distributed business networks.     

Solving subgraph isomorphism problems with constraint programming

The subgraph isomorphism problem consists in deciding if there exists a copy of a pattern graph in a target graph. We introduce in this paper a global constraint and an associated filtering algorithm to solve this problem within the context of constraint programming. The main idea of the filtering algorithm is to label every node with respect to its relationships with other nodes of the graph, and to define a partial order on these labels in order to express compatibility of labels for subgraph isomorphism. This partial order over labels is used to filter domains. Labelings can also be strengthened by adding information from the labels of neighbors. Such a strengthening can be applied iteratively until a fixpoint is reached. Practical experiments illustrate that our new filtering approach is more effective on difficult instances of scale free graphs than state-of-the-art algorithms and other constraint programming approaches.     

An intelligent system for monitoring and diagnosis of the CO2 capture process

Amine-based carbon dioxide capture has been widely considered as a feasible ideal technology for reducing large-scale CO₂ emissions and mitigating global warming. The operation of amine-based CO₂ capture is a complicated task, which involves monitoring over 100 process parameters and careful manipulation of numerous valves and pumps. The current research in the field of CO₂ capture has emphasized the need for improving CO₂ capture efficiency and enhancing plant performance. In the present study, artificial intelligence techniques were applied for developing a knowledge-based expert system that aims at effectively monitoring and controlling the CO₂ capture process and thereby enhancing CO₂ capture efficiency. In developing the system, the inferential modeling technique (IMT) was applied to analyze the domain knowledge and problem-solving techniques, and a knowledge base was developed on DeltaV Simulate.The expert system helps to enhance CO₂ capture system performance and efficiency by reducing the time required for diagnosis and problem solving if abnormal conditions occur. The expert system can be used as a decision-support tool that helps inexperienced operators control the plant; it can be used also for training novice operators.     

Stability analysis and time-varying walking control for an under-actuated planar biped robot

This paper presents two walking controllers for a planar biped robot with unactuated point feet. The control is based on the tracking of reference motions expressed as a function of time. First, the reference motions are adapted at each step in order to create a hybrid zero dynamic (HZD) system. Next, the stability of the walking gait under closed-loop control is evaluated with the linearization of the restricted Poincaré map of the HZD. When the controlled outputs are selected to be the actuated coordinates, most periodic walking gaits for this robot are unstable, that is, the eigenvalues of the linearized Poincaré map (ELPM) is larger than one. Therefore, two control strategies are explored to produce stable walking. The first strategy uses an event-based feedback controller to modify the ELPM and the second one is based on the choice of controlled outputs. The stability analysis show that, for the same robot and for the same reference trajectory, the stability of the walking (or ELPM) can be modified by some pertinent choices of controlled outputs. Moreover, by studying some walking characteristics of many stable cases, a necessary condition for stable walking is proposed. It is that the height of swing foot is nearly zero at the desired moment of impact. Based on this condition, the duration of the step is almost constant in presence of initial error, so a method for choosing controlled outputs for the second controller is given. By using this method, two stable domains for the controlled outputs selection are obtained.     

ARMAX modelling of international tourism demand

Box–Jenkins (1970) models are often used to capture the autoregressive moving average of past observations of tourist arrivals from Japan to Taiwan and New Zealand. However, other explanatory variables, such as real income in the origin country, have also affected the demand for international travel. The purpose of this paper is to use the ARMAX model to investigate the dynamic relationship between tourism demand and real income of Japan, and to compare the findings with the single-equation model. Unit root tests and diagnostics are performed before estimating the income elasticity of travel demand by Japan for New Zealand and Taiwan based on seasonally unadjusted quarterly data for 1980(1) to 2004(2). The empirical results of the ARMAX model support the economic theory that the demand for international travel is positively related to income of the origin country.     

Experimental analysis and numerical modelling of the forming process of polypropylene replicas of micro-cavities using hot embossing

Numerical modelling of the deformation of a polymer using the finite elements method in axisymetrical mode was performed using the LsDyna^® software to describe the filling of micro-cavities during the forming process of the material using the hot embossing. These simulations firstly allow verifying whether the chosen forming process conditions promote or not an optimized filling of the superficial cavities in order to achieve precise replicas which best reproduce the superficial topography of the mould. The simulations were carried out to evaluate the filling of the cavities taking into account the mechanical behaviour of the selected polymer into the model. Moreover, these models were developed to verify the effect of the distribution of the mould cavities on their filling. The influence of the mobility of non deformable rigid plates on the filling of the cavities represents an auxiliary variable. In the approach presented, the compression plates are assumed to be parallel and non deformable, whereas the polymer disk follows a rubbery behaviour around a temperature equal to 140°C. Globally the modelling results are satisfactory for they are rather close to the experimental observations conducted. In summary, the effect of the normal stress as also the distribution of micro-cavities at the mould surface seem to prevail in the case of the forming process by hot embossing.     

On the relationship between subjective and objective measures of fatigue

Objective: Objective and subjective methods have been used in the past to assess workplace fatigue, but little is known about correlations between them. We examine correlations between subjective and objective measures, including measures collected in a workplace scenario. Methods: 15 young and 17 older participants were assessed before and after work with four types of fatigue measure: objective physical (posturography), objective mental (psychomotor vigilance task), subjective physical and mental (self-assessment), objective and subjective realistic (oculomotor behaviour, observer-rated facial expression, typing performance). Results: Pre- and post-test scores were analysed with an ANOVA, significant differences were submitted to a factor analysis. It yielded three factors: one representing posturography, the second self-rated mental and physical fatigue and the third observer-rated facial expression. Conclusions: Results advocate the existence of three independent fatigue components: Objective physical fatigue, introspective and extrospective fatigue.

Practitioner Summary: This study analyses correlations between different subjective and objective fatigue markers to better understand the complex nature of workplace fatigue. Measurements were conducted directly at the workplace. Results reveal that fatigue comprises three independent fatigue components: Objective physical fatigue, introspective and extrospective fatigue.     

Using knowledge structures to redesign an instructor-operator station

Frequently, user interface (UI) designers must choose between modifying an established, but suboptimal and familiar, UI or to avoid such changes. Changing the UI’s, organization may frustrate users who have become familiar with the original design, whereas failing to make changes may force users to perform at an unsatisfactory level. This paper presents two studies that investigate whether users familiar with a poorly designed UI would find items faster, and prefer a reorganized UI that conformed to domain expert knowledge, or would their familiarity with the original UI yield faster performance and higher satisfaction.This paper describes activities to redesign a menu structure in a simulator instructor–operator station (IOS) using hierarchical card sorting and cluster analysis (Romesburg, 2004). This analysis was used to reorganize the menu structure to reflect the knowledge representations of domain experts in accordance with the principle of proximity compatibility (Wickens and Carswell, 1995, Rothrock et al., 2006). The new design was validated with a separate set of users by a reaction time experiment and preference selection.     

Robust estimators and tests for bivariate copulas based on likelihood depth

Estimators and tests based on likelihood depth for one-parametric copulas are given. For the Gaussian and Gumbel copulas, it is shown that the maximum depth estimators are biased. They can be corrected and the new estimators are robust against contamination. For testing, simplicial likelihood depth is considered. Because of the bias of the maximum depth estimator, simplicial likelihood depth is not a degenerated U-statistic so that easily asymptotic α-level tests can be derived for arbitrary hypotheses. Tests are in particular investigated for the one-sided alternatives. Simulation studies for the Gaussian and Gumbel copulas show that the power of the first test is rather good, but the latter one has to be improved, which is also done here. The new tests are robust against contamination.